Many bloggers were pleasantly surprised yesterday to see a little extra info showing up on Google when it came to blogs.
In addition to the regular snippet, there was an extra lines, showing how many posts there are (although it is not clear whether this is blogs only or forums as well) how many authors contributed and when the latest post was made.
One screenshot of a search by author name even brought up a snippet with the blog author credited on the SERPS. Unfortunately, most of the big-time bloggers don’t think this type of red carpet treatment will last, so they aren’t counting on it continuing.
I don’t see why it shouldn’t be considered valuable and useful, though. I for one would love to see if a blog’s last posting was three years ago – it would save me a lot of time when I am looking for fresher information! And being able to find a particular post by author isn’t shabby, either.
Google’s system sometimes seems to work against bloggers, but in this case, it could actually be beneficial – if they keep up the good work and don’t decide to discontinue it. While some blogs are definitely higher quality, it would be nice if you could keep track of which ones have the most up to date content and which are resting on laurels received long ago.
Other bloggers could quickly find blog posts by friends and colleagues as well, and it could be interesting to see what different types or increased traffic could be gained by letting searchers know this type of information.
Large blogs with multiple posters could be sorted more readily by users, and particular series by this or that expert followed or found for quick reference. If a blog went missing or was deleted, the information might still be able to be traced if the content had been scraped or alluded to elsewhere.
I hope Google tries this idea out for a while!
Tags: attributes, bloggers, blogs, SERPs